A Third Airport For Chicago

November 05, 1985

There has been renewed discussion recently about building a third airport in the Chicago area, possibly in Will County, the Lake Calumet region of Chicago or on the Illinois-Wisconsin line. Similar interest in a third airport in the late 1960s came to naught.

The greatest interest in a new airport this time seems to come from the suburbs complaining about noise from O`Hare International, the world`s busiest airport. They want to share some of that noise with everyone else. The most serious opposition thus far is from the airlines that would have to pay for a new facility after spending upwards of $1 billion modernizing the facilities at O`Hare.

State Sen. Bob Kustra, a Republican from Glenview, adopted a reasonable approach to the controversy last spring when he, among others, induced the legislature to appropriate $500,000 for a state study of the feasibility of another airport. Aviation experts are divided on whether a third airport will be needed or is feasible.

Environmental laws, for example, now make it almost impossible to get approval for a new jetport in a populated area. That is why the newest airports for Houston, Dallas, Washington and Montreal were built so far from those cities. Constraints on the air traffic control system may make a significant increase in air traffic in the Chicago area impractical even if a third airport is built.

The state study ought to take those factors into account, as well as the question of whether the airlines would use a new airport. Would Chicago be building at huge expense an underused facility like Washington`s Dulles or Montreal`s Mirabel? Both of those airports had substantial financial backing and political impetus from their respective federal governments, a prospect unlikely in Chicago`s case.

Should the proposed third airport replace O`Hare, Midway or both or simply augment them? Is there really a need for three commercial airports in the Chicago area? New York has three but it also has twice the population of Chicago and some geographic obstacles not present here.

The traffic at O`Hare has grown because the airport is such a convenient connecting location for travelers from the East and Midwest. Almost half the passengers who pass through O`Hare are simply changing planes. Would a third airport disperse traffic to such an extent that Chicago loses its

attractiveness as a connecting complex?

The impetus for building a third airport is political--the relief of noise from O`Hare and to a lesser extent economic revival of the far South Side and southern suburbs. But a number of significant technical

transportation questions need to be answered before the region commits itself to the tremendous expense of building another airport that may or may not wind up as a white elephant.